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General Fiat 500 Cat 1 Alarm Upgrade

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General Fiat 500 Cat 1 Alarm Upgrade

Do you have a cat 1 Alarm installed on Your 500

  • Yes

    Votes: 1 11.1%

  • No

    Votes: 8 88.9%
  • Total voters
    9
H

handal

New member
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
Messages
36
Points
8
As per the title, has anyone got one fitted? I know the Fiat 500 cars come with a cat 2 immobiliser but do I need to get an alarm as well. Will it make any difference with insurance for the car? Has anyone tried an insurance quote with just immobiliser and then with alarm?

Think I'll start a poll to get views...
 
insurance on the 500 is cheap anyway. I don't think adding an alarm will make a huge difference in cost anyway
 
handal said:
As per the title, has anyone got one fitted? I know the Fiat 500 cars come with a cat 2 immobiliser but do I need to get an alarm as well. Will it make any difference with insurance for the car? Has anyone tried an insurance quote with just immobiliser and then with alarm?

Think I'll start a poll to get views...
Click to expand...

I looked into fitting a Meta Alarm on the 500 that I used to have and it was going to cost me €400. If I opted for an aftermarket one which were cheaper at €300 it would invalidated the warranty on the electrics.

Some say that alarms are not needed but last night my wife's MiTo was broken into :mad: and all her samples and gym bag stolen from it. It seems that 8 cars were done in the area last night. There was no signs of the car being broken in so maybe she didn't correctlly press the button on the fob :confused: - it's the same design as the 500. Police wanted to take the car away for fingerprinting but she couldn't do without it for 2-3 days.

A lesson learned for the experience is NOT to leave the manual in the glovebox along with the key codes :eek: and the key lock nut for the wheels.:eek: The only blessing was that the laptop wasn't in the boot and I had the fancy Sat Nav.

Going back to the 500 if I had one fitted there was no difference on the insurance. To insure an A500 IIRC I would have had to fit a particular spec alarm system.
 
alarms are pointless, people ignore them and by the time you have heard it the thief will be long gone with the swag

lesson is dont leave valuables in the car

insurers sometime specify tracker on high risk cars
 
so general view is don't bother wasting the money. I guessed that would be the answer. I'll have to tell insurance co that I do not have an alarm fitted and see if policy increases I guess before making final decision.
 
handal said:
so general view is don't bother wasting the money. I guessed that would be the answer. I'll have to tell insurance co that I do not have an alarm fitted and see if policy increases I guess before making final decision.
Click to expand...

They normally ask you if an immobilser is fitted. That should cover it.
They was a bit of cost cutting on the 500 with no alarm and no 2nd remote key but you can live without it.
 
RobW said:
alarms are pointless, people ignore them and by the time you have heard it the thief will be long gone with the swag

lesson is dont leave valuables in the car

insurers sometime specify tracker on high risk cars
Click to expand...

The 'guys' who robbed the stuff in the wife's car last night had a smoke in it and had moved the mirror in the car to see if the coast was clear. They seemed to make themselves quite comfy. If an alarm was going off they may not have spend as much time searching through the stuff in the glovebox and the boot.:mad:
 
Last edited:
look on ebay thats where i got mine,alarm is very good any you also get a second fob(not the key type).you can also fit it your self but i did not get any money knocked of my insurance
cheers paul
 
pmw123 said:
look on ebay thats where i got mine,alarm is very good any you also get a second fob(not the key type).you can also fit it your self but i did not get any money knocked of my insurance
cheers paul
Click to expand...

Upgrading from the Thatcham category 2 immobiliser (standard on the 500) with an alarm puts you into a 2-1 category provided it was fitted by the dealer.
Understand that nearly all UK specification vehicles are now Category 2 which is approved by the Insurance companies.
Here is a listing of all cars and how they are classified. Not too sure if you can ever get to Category 1 with a dealer upgrade on a 500.
If I had something that was pretty unique I would look into fitting a tracker as already mentioned by RobW.

EDIT:
Looking at the Poll - Do you have a Cat 1 alarm installed on your 500 ?
does that need to be re-phrased ?:idea:
 
Last edited:
loveshandbags said:
The 'guys' who robbed the stuff in the wife's car last night had a smoke in it and had moved the mirror in the car to see if the coast was clear. They seemed to make themselves quite comfy. If an alarm was going off they may not have spend as much time searching through the stuff in the glovebox and the boot.:mad:
Click to expand...

if she didnt lock it an alarm wouldnt go off

my bravo has deadlocks, does the mito?
 
RobW said:
if she didnt lock it an alarm wouldnt go off

my bravo has deadlocks, does the mito?
Click to expand...

I had to check it and after trying it out it does work.:):):)
You have to double click quickly on the 'lock' button. Many thanks for the tip on that. I didn't know I had it.(y)

She wasn't pretty adamant that she pressed the fob correctly to lock. It would be too far fetched to think that someone was nearby with a code grabber. But with 8 cars being done in our 'good area' last night you wouldn't know what to think. There could have gone from car to car trying all the door handles. Police weren't forecoming but another on the road last week had a €6,000 bike stolen from inside in the car at lunch-hour. Bike was worth €4K (carbon fibre) and the wheels cost €2K ! And he had no insurance cover on it.:eek:
 
loveshandbags said:
They was a bit of cost cutting on the 500 with no alarm and no 2nd remote key but you can live without it.
Click to expand...

That's actually a huge relief, that reminder - I was thinking I'd lost the spare remote key for my 500, but now remember it came with a plain grey spare key like a Mk2 Punto key (but grey rather than blue). My 166 came with a spare remote key and an alarm with ultrasonic sensors. Fortunately it hasn't gone off yet, I hate false alarms...

Sorry to hear of the Mito break-in - in a 'good' area too.

Reminds me of a young couple I know (used to work with the guy) who lived together in a small rental house in the roughest part of Hamilton, car parked on the street. Houses around there often have broken windows and you see fights on the streets, but Pieter and Monique never had a problem.

Anyway after several years of double-income-no-kids, they bought an expensive new house in a new area on the north side of town. The house (I call it the concrete dungeon) is a modern industrialist style and even has central heating (unusual in NZ). Double garage but one night they left the car on the street for some reason and it was broken into quick as a flash. This is within a month of moving to the 'nice' area! I think the conclusion is that thieves aren't stupid - they know where the money is ;)

-Alex
 
Last edited:
alexGS said:
That's actually a huge relief, that reminder - I was thinking I'd lost the spare remote key for my 500, but now remember it came with a plain grey spare key like a Mk2 Punto key (but grey rather than blue). My 166 came with a spare remote key and an alarm with ultrasonic sensors. Fortunately it hasn't gone off yet, I hate false alarms...

Sorry to hear of the Mito break-in - in a 'good' area too.

Reminds me of a young couple I know (used to work with the guy) who lived together in a small rental house in the roughest part of Hamilton, car parked on the street. Houses around there often have broken windows and you see fights on the streets, but Pieter and Monique never had a problem.

Anyway after several years of double-income-no-kids, they bought an expensive new house in a new area on the north side of town. The house (I call it the concrete dungeon) is a modern industrialist style and even has central heating (unusual in NZ). Double garage but one night they left the car on the street for some reason and it was broken into quick as a flash. This is within a month of moving to the 'nice' area! I think the conclusion is that thieves aren't stupid - they know where the money is ;)

-Alex
Click to expand...

I enjoyed that and it was a little ironic !
Well last night my wife's car got parked in the garage and mine went out on the street.:bang:
Will just have to make room in garage now so I can get mine in as well.

I was thinking that it might be nice to have a setting where the car alarm / centrally locking is automatically set if it's not occupied and the keys are out of the ignition.
 
alexGS said:
That's actually a huge relief, that reminder - I was thinking I'd lost the spare remote key for my 500, but now remember it came with a plain grey spare key like a Mk2 Punto key (but grey rather than blue). My 166 came with a spare remote key and an alarm with ultrasonic sensors. Fortunately it hasn't gone off yet, I hate false alarms...

Sorry to hear of the Mito break-in - in a 'good' area too.

Reminds me of a young couple I know (used to work with the guy) who lived together in a small rental house in the roughest part of Hamilton, car parked on the street. Houses around there often have broken windows and you see fights on the streets, but Pieter and Monique never had a problem.

Anyway after several years of double-income-no-kids, they bought an expensive new house in a new area on the north side of town. The house (I call it the concrete dungeon) is a modern industrialist style and even has central heating (unusual in NZ). Double garage but one night they left the car on the street for some reason and it was broken into quick as a flash. This is within a month of moving to the 'nice' area! I think the conclusion is that thieves aren't stupid - they know where the money is ;)

-Alex
Click to expand...

Likewise reminds me of when we were looking to move out of London to Hertfordshire and tossing up between St Albans and Harpenden. I discussed it with a colleague who had lived in both.

We agreed that Harpenden is "nicer" (ie posher) than St Albans, but he had only been the victim of crime (I forget if it was his car or house that was broken into) when living in Harpenden. His comment was that it was closer to Luton so the thieving scumbags didn't have as far to go and came to the richer people first....
 
Most Easterly Pandas said:
Whats a CAT1 alarm :confused:

You on about thatcham approved?
Click to expand...

Back in post #5 this link referred to a Cat 1 alarm as defined by Thatcham.

AFAIK a 500 can only get only ever get to a 2-1. I don't know why it 'falls short' of a Cat 1 classification but it probably doesn't matter unless one was insuring the likes of a 695. But if you had a 695 you'd probably have a tracker fitted as well.
 
loveshandbags said:
Back in post #5 this link referred to a Cat 1 alarm as defined by Thatcham.

AFAIK a 500 can only get only ever get to a 2-1. I don't know why it 'falls short' of a Cat 1 classification but it probably doesn't matter unless one was insuring the likes of a 695. But if you had a 695 you'd probably have a tracker fitted as well.
Click to expand...

From memory Cat1 or Cat2 is just the type of device fitted.

If a device is Cat 2 then its an alarm and if Cat 1 then its an immobiliser, or something like that.
 
Most Easterly Pandas said:
From memory Cat1 or Cat2 is just the type of device fitted.

If a device is Cat 2 then its an alarm and if Cat 1 then its an immobiliser, or something like that.
Click to expand...

The Fiat 500 is classified as a Cat 2 - immobiliser fitted as standard.
The MiTo is classified as a Cat 1 - immobiliser and alarm fitted as standard.

If you fit an alarm to the Fiat 500 - say the Meta - it goes to a 2-1.
Sounds like a 'half-way house'.:)
 
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